School of Design

The autonomous teaching program School of Design unfolds the forces of the design discipline to radically shift the perspective of traditional school education and institutional learning.

In a world of increasing complexity, there is an enormous need for creativity. Therefore the project explores the potential and role of an early design education. School of Design is a self-initiated and independent design education format developed in cooperation with the Heinz-Berggruen-Gymnasium in Berlin. It is an educational experiment trying to expand and question the established ways of teaching and learning in traditional education.

Every design semester the students were confronted with complex design tasks and accompanied in terms of context and methodology. The students are introduced to the various approaches that can be part of design and exposed to a wide range of perspectives on design; through lectures, workshops and guided assignments. The basis for the semester projects is process-based and divides the semester into three mutually reinforcing sub-phases.


The practice based programme evolved for the teenaged students into a catalyst and a visual platform for experiments, their personal talents and interests, discussions about a sustainable and collective future, thoughts on gender roles, their future position in society, etc.

2014 – 2019
Initiated by Studio Lapatsch|Unger in cooperation with Heinz-Berggruen-Gymnasium in Berlin.